Latest / Ear Scouts Podcast / 3 Epcot Strategies for Families, Thrill-Seekers and Going Beyond the Rides
Transcript
- Rob: In this episode of the Earscouts podcast, we're sharing three different strategies to help you plan a fun and festive day at Epcot from navigating the world showcase with little ones to a day that's all about finding the shortest waits for the newest thrill rides. We got a lot to cover, so let's get to it. Hi ho everybody, this is Rob with Ear Scouts coming to you from our makeshift studio here in Celebration Florida. Joining me as always is the other half of Ear Scouts here in Celebration. Eric, hi ho Eric. Erick: Hiho everyone. Rob: Eric will be keeping up with the live chat over on Patreon and possibly continuing to do battle with his green screen. We had a green screen battle before the show, but Eric won that particular battle. ⁓ But Eric will also be keeping up with the live chat over on Patreon. If you'd like to join us live as we record each episode and see fun behind the scenes things like ⁓ green screen battles, head on over to patreon.com forward slash earscouts. Also with us from the great state of Connecticut is the host of Jessica scraps on YouTube. Our good friend Jessica. Hi ho Jessica. Jessica: I hope everyone. Rob: And also returning from his very exciting trip across the pond, our friend Craig is back in Indiana. Hi ho, Craig. Craig: Hiho everyone, good to be back. Rob: So how was your trip to the UK? I'm sure it was Craig: Yeah, that's an understatement. It was one of the best vacations I've ever taken and one of the most beautiful cities I've ever spent time in. we spent three nights in London, ⁓ did so many wonderful things, got to see a lot of sights, never enough time. Then we spent one in a place called Castle Coombe, which is, if you've ever seen pictures of these idyllic little villages in the English countryside, This is probably one of the most idyllic ones we could find and it was just incredible. It was our big splurge. stayed at, they have a manor house and also have these like little cottages outside and it's all like ⁓ within a few paces the town center. But our room that we had there was just ⁓ gorgeous. ⁓ Like the bathroom is brick and it was almost like it was set in probably the kitchen originally. Jessica: Mmm. Craig: So felt like the bathtub was sitting in a fireplace. ⁓ And the grounds were incredible, these gardens, ⁓ just fantastic. Then our last day we spent in Bath, which ⁓ they have the Roman baths there. So there's these baths that are centuries old. ⁓ And the museum part of that, but it was just fascinating to see these things that have been there since the Romans occupied that area. So yeah, just. Rob: ⁓ very cool. Craig: a fantastic time. got to see some more Patreon family. And in Francesca, we all went out for a night on the town. I did not get to see Fiona, unfortunately, but we're going to be at Disney at the same time in April at the end of the month. So we will get to see her then at least. But yeah, my our flight was six hours late getting in. So that messed up a few things we wanted to do. But otherwise, it was it was a great trip. Rob: Awesome. Well, we were going to be we're going to be hearing more about the adventures Craig had in the UK in the after party. But for right now, we're going to be talking about Epcot. We've got three different Epcot strategies to share with you. If you listen to our earlier strategy videos, we kind of do three different approaches. And the idea isn't necessarily that you would take any one of these approaches and just mirror that in your day. It's really. just kind of give you some different things you might want to think about from different perspectives and help you to build out the perfect day for you and your crew based on your unique circumstances. But before we get into that, I do have a little bit of Ear Scouts news that's related to this. So if you watch our Lightning Lane videos, we like to kind of show people which Lightning Lanes are the most difficult to grab by using a cards metaphor. So We think of lightning lanes as a deck of cards and the ace of the deck is something that you probably want to book earlier because it's going to be harder to get as the day goes on. And as you move down the values of the deck, those rides and attractions are easier to book. So you don't have to worry about those quite as much early in your day. But we do update these decks ⁓ somewhat frequently now. The plan was to do it quarterly, but I'm realizing with the rate that Disney is going to be adding attractions and changing attractions and updating attractions this year. We're going to need to do this more than quarterly. So we will be rolling out new updates as the year goes on, as these new attractions come online. But if you want to see the latest deck when you're coming here to Disney World, just visit EarScouts.com forward slash deck D E C K and you'll see the full deck. But I'm very excited to announce that we're going to unveil here for the first time our new deck for Epcot. ⁓ And this will be online by the time this show airs. And also, if you're part of our Patreon family, we're going to be revealing all the decks for all the parks tomorrow at our monthly Jamboree. So we hope to see you all there. But starting off with Epcot, not a lot of changes here. ⁓ The ace of the deck is Test track not surprisingly the king of the deck did move a little bit It's now frozen ever after and I think that's probably related to the fact that they updated the animatronics in that attraction So there's a little bit more interest than normal even though frozen is always a popular attraction The queen is now Remy's ratatouille adventure The Jack is soaring around the world and I do want to point out this is one I expect to raise higher in the deck especially once the new overlay, there's going to be a special overlay for the 250th birthday of the United States, the semi-quincentennial, ⁓ and that is going to be ⁓ closer to July 4th. So I would anticipate Sorin becoming higher in the deck. Also, Sorin has been moved from being a tier one attraction to a tier two attraction. And I can tell you, we're making a Lightning Lane video at Epcot this weekend. And Soren is already out of Lightning Lanes, ⁓ which right now it's the only attraction that's currently out of Lightning Lanes. So I do think also that move into Tier 2 is making it a very popular Lightning Lane, but currently still the Jack. The 10 is Mission Space. Nine is Spaceship Earth. Eight is Journey into Imagination with Figment. Seven, Turtle Talk with Crush. Jessica: Mmm. Rob: Six, Living with the Land, five, The Seas with Nemo and Friends, and coming in at the bottom, number four, ⁓ Disney and Pixar Short Film Festival. ⁓ So that is the latest deck, but again, check earscouts.com forward slash deck before your visit to see if there are any updates between now and then. And before we start sharing our tips and strategies, I do want to talk about a few things that make Epcot a unique challenge to plan for. And we're going to be covering this in all of our different strategies. I just want to kind of lay it out from the outset. Number one, you can enter Epcot from either the front of the park or the back of the park. And that's the only park at Walt Disney World that is like that. So typically you only have one entrance at Animal Kingdom. You could technically enter through Rainforest Cafe, but it's still the front of the park. It doesn't make a huge difference. But all the others only have one entrance. So if you're planning to enter from the back of the park we will kind of Nod to that in each of these strategies at the end But keep in mind that most of this strategy is based around entering from the main entrance at the front ⁓ Festivals are also a unique challenge that Epcot and they kind of require their own planning We're not going to go super deep in that because we did a whole episode that's all about festivals. So if you haven't listened to our Epcot festivals episode here on the podcast, go check that out before you visit. finally, World Showcase itself is unlike anything at any other Disney park in the U.S. And it requires a fair amount of time to explore. should plan to explore because that's really kind of the heart. I think of Epcot. ⁓ And if you miss out on the World Showcase, you're missing out on a big part of what makes Epcot special. So with all that said, Jessica, why don't you start us off this week by talking about how ⁓ a family, especially specifically a family with little ones, tow, how are you going to approach a day at Epcot? Jessica: So I do want to start off by saying, ⁓ I'm going to assume right now that we are rope dropping and not doing early entry. I am assuming you have at least one toddler in your family. So ⁓ just to level set little bit of that. I think that's important. To me, one of the things about Epcot, and I've heard some of my friends say this because ⁓ I have adult children. Most of my friends have adult children and they say, well, you know, we never We never went to Epcot when the kids were young, because I just didn't think it was a park for kids. And I was always shocked by that because even when my children were young, we're talking four, five, six, seven, eight, 10, know, younger kids, Epcot was their favorite park. They loved Epcot. And it's a lot about, I think, what you do in Epcot and how you treat Epcot. So the first thing I'm gonna say here is unlike Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios, I'm gonna tell you get the lightning lanes, get them. ⁓ I know ⁓ for the other parks so far, I've said maybe they weren't worth it from the financials, there wasn't enough rides. Epcot's there's enough rides. There's a lot of rides. And some of the key rides for that age group you want a Lightning Lane for. ⁓ if you're listening to this podcast, you probably already know, but just in case frozen ever after and Remy's Ratatouille Adventure are two of the best rides for that age group. They're fascinating. They've got all of the things the kids want, the music, the IP, all of that. And they are, as Rob just said, two of the highest tiered, most important, hardest to get rides. in the park with some of the longest lines, So whichever one of you can get, grab that if you've got the little kids. I know test track is this ⁓ big, shiny object, but if you've got the little kids with you, I highly recommend making sure you either get frozen or Remy's ⁓ hold on to that. Even if it's later in the day, just hold on. Craig: you you Jessica: to Rimmies or Frozen. I would then make sure that you've got your other two as early as possible and in ⁓ World of Nature, which is the area of the park that has seas with Nemo and has Living with the Land and Turtle Talk with Crush, ⁓ that area of the park. Or if you could get Figment, you could do Figment over there too. So in that area of the park. Because what I'm gonna recommend is you walk in the park, you should. take the iconic picture in front of Spaceship Earth. This is a picture that you should do early. I know, and we've always talked about doing early. This is one of those pictures that you're gonna remember. The castle is iconic. The tree is iconic, but that Spaceship Earth picture, people forget about it. Take that picture. Then go right. Go right and let's do World of Nature. Let's just do it and spend a lot of time in the aquarium. If you have that age group, it is, I believe, the second largest aquarium in the country, behind Atlanta, I believe. That's a big deal. There are people, if you go to Atlanta, you know you're spending $30 a ticket to go see something that's just a little bit bigger ⁓ in the, ⁓ and you've got and you this whole aquarium. Don't walk by it. There are manatees, there are sharks, there are fish, there's all kinds of activities. There's a scavenger hunt. There's a really cool scavenger hunt. There's an ode to scrapbooking, just as a cute little, you know, hot take there. There's an ode to scrapbooking in the aquarium. Find it, post it on the Patreon, let me know. ⁓ It is a really cool place to be. we, when our kids were young, I mean, Rob: Ha ha ha. Jessica: they really thought the aquarium was the big deal. They were going to the aquarium, there happened to be some rides around there. So I would really spend some time in the aquarium. Then depending on the temperature, I would do journey, journey water. would do, and if it, when I say depending on the temperature, if it's in the cooler months of the year, you might want to wait until it warms up to do the journey through water because that age group is going to get soaked. I would plan on having a change of clothes. I would plan on having a change of shoes and letting them go hog wild. Just let them go hog wild in that part. Rob: Mm-hmm. Jessica: we've got two scavenger hunts. We've got a splash pad. We've got an aquarium and we haven't left the first two attractions in this park. So just want to put that in perspective when people say Epcot's not for littles. It ⁓ can be for littles and you didn't even have to go much farther. Craig: Mm-hmm. Jessica: Now the hot take that I'm going to say is depending on your littles, I might skip the land pavilion. ⁓ Living with the land, although in my personal opinion, one of the top 10 attractions, even my mother does not love living with the land. So, and you know, she says it's a little boring hot take, I know, but ⁓ kids might find living with the land boring and they may not be tall enough for Soren. So it's okay to skip the Living with the Land Pavilion. But you must go to the best ride ever on the face of the planet, To me, Figment is what Disney is all about. It's about inspiring your imagination. It's a ride that says what I think Disney World is, which is a place that lets kids ⁓ think outside the box and teaches them that it's to dream ⁓ and all of those things, which is what that does. At the end of the ride, there are some ⁓ kind of... interactive exhibits where the kids can play kind of video game stuff. ⁓ That is 70 % functional, I think, maybe on a good day. But it's there. That's a lot of fun. Up next ⁓ to Figment is the Pixar's ⁓ movies, the shorts. ⁓ Rob: What a good day. Craig: Haha Jessica: They're really cute if you've hit that time of the day where your kid needs to relax, needs a nice break, needs some AC. If you have done that little run and then watch that Pixar shorts, that's a good cool down spot, quiet, it's entertaining, it's like a big movie. They're all child appropriate and they're all entertaining. Those shorts, I think those are good for the kids. ⁓ At this point, I would say, yeah, it's a 4D experience. Rob: And it's kind of like a 4D experience in there. mean, there's it's not just sitting down to watch a movie. It's like stuff happens. I think it is still exciting for littles beyond just the movie. Jessica: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Right. And I haven't talked about characters. Rob's gonna go into characters, but along the way there's characters most of these places. And ⁓ if that's something your child is into, at this point we could have met Moana and Figment so far at least. And then if you have a Visa credit card, you can meet one of the Fab Five typically ⁓ next to Pixar shorts. So there's a lot of really cool things that you can do right in that area. ⁓ Now we're going to transition to lunch. And to me, one of the things that I've seen a lot of families do lately, they're going to either Sunshine Seasons or they're going to the ⁓ Connections Cafe and they're getting their lunch to go. Outside of Communicore Hall, there's this really cool grass area. It has some shade. And then they've got two stages, a main stage that they have an incontest show. And then another stage that for the festivals, they have specialty acts. And I've seen multiple families with their trays of food, letting their kids dance and play and get all of that energy out while they sit. Maybe they have a glass of wine or a beer or something and they're eating their food. And I just thought, What a great use of that space. And what a great, that I wish they had when my kids were younger. ⁓ Also in that area, there's tons of benches and tables, much like we talked about in the Secrets of Magic Kingdom. All of those benches and tables that have been built recently also have charging. There's some hidden charging ports in there. So if you need charging, all of those benches and tables that are kind of look like wood material, those are great places to hang out. They also have two ⁓ really nice playgrounds. That's another place that you could take your lunch. There's one ⁓ next to past figment. ⁓ on World Celebration, on the Way to World Showcase that is covered with some awnings. And they change it for the festivals up, for the festivals. So right now for Flower and Garden, it has like a bee theme, I think, or those kinds of things, but they've changed it up for different festivals. But it always has something fun for the kids to play with and seating and a good place for kids. And then on the other side of Creation Shop, on your way to Guardians of the Galaxy, ⁓ There is a official playground there that has once again, seating, a slide, some swings, some things for kids to do there. So Communicore Hall grass or the two playgrounds, great places for kids because I know at this point in the day, the kids want to run. They want to run, they want to scream and they want to do it without anybody kind of giving them attitude. And these are places made for kids to play. Rob: You Jessica: And I think that's one of the best parts about Epcot. I struggle to think no other park has that, right? Am I missing something in one of the other parks? Rob: Yeah. I mean Not to the extent that Epcot does I don't think I mean because you there's even another splash pad over there in world discovery Near that that playground that you're talking about. I mean, I can't think of so Magic Kingdom certainly in in Toy storybook circus has that But not as many Yeah Yeah Craig: and Mm-hmm. Erick: Magic Kingdom The Circus Craig: Yeah, Animal Kingdom has the Boneyard. Yeah, and that's gone. Jessica: but it's gone now. So right now to me, Epcot is just perfect for little kids for this kind of the playground areas. So at this point, we've done all the front of the park that we know what to do. I would now move to the back of the park and I would, depending on where your lightning lanes fall is where I would go in which direction. I think it's okay to have your Rimmies and your Frozen later in the day. Erick: Yeah. Jessica: for two reasons. One is you kind of want to finish the front of the park first. And number two is you kind of want to give your kids something to look forward to. I think it's kind of exciting. But while you're doing World Showcase, I want to mention a few things. First is Kidcot. So Kidcot is an activity that they have in most of the countries. It is a area of each country where they have a cast member dedicated to do a little activity with your kids. They give you a postcard. ⁓ that they then can get a sticker, a stamp, and they actually sit down and have an activity in the country. They collect all of these and then they have a book of their memories of World Showcase. This is a great thing for kids. And when I say kids, this really does, I've seen kids up until maybe junior high really enjoying them. There are certain Disney adults that love to do those too, but for kids, it's really... It's a lot of fun. gives you a chance to interact with the cast member. You learn how to say hello and all the countries. It's a fun, it's a fun activity for the kids. The second of which is DuckTales. Now, many a podcast I've talked about DuckTales. So if you're a long-term, long-time listener, sorry, but DuckTales is on the Play Disney app. It to me is one of the things that's overlooked so often at the parks. Most countries you can log in and there's an interactive scavenger hunt game that you play with the DuckTales. And it's a video. show you a short movie describing what's happening. And then in Epcot, things happen in the countries. Actual lights, water movement, perhaps even Donald Duck shows up. There are things that happen in the countries that you cannot imagine will happen from noise to all kinds of stuff. And I have not had anyone play it and not be excited. It's just so exciting. Please download the Play Disney app with your kids, spend some time and do at least one country. And it's so much fun and it's so underrated and it keeps the kids entertained. really did like to find a ⁓ unique scavenger hunt for my kids, whether it's let's find ⁓ food that's ⁓ to each of the countries go into and let's go and look and let's talk about it, or a toy that you wouldn't find everywhere else, or something that, you know, just to talk about in all the countries. ⁓ have multiple pictures of my kids when they were little, just finding something interesting in different countries. ⁓ Katie got one of the puppets from China when she, that was the one souvenir she wanted once. And we have that puppet for years and years and years. And Belle got a kimono from Japan that we used as a Halloween costume, probably five times. So it really, and if you've seen my child, my very pale blonde child, you'll know it was an interesting geisha, but it was good. ⁓ But it was just the world showcase. Rob: Ha ha ha. Jessica: Like Rob said, it's kind of where the heart and soul of the park is. And just going in the stores and looking through them and seeing the different cultures was a lot of fun for kids. Do not do it fast. Go ahead. Craig: Yeah, I'd like to put I love your idea about getting the kids excited about something in each country. You know, it's something historical or something has to do with the actual architecture of each pavilion. I'd love to see the infotainment come back to Epcot. I know it's just been whittled away, but that's what it was at the beginning. It all about learning and discovering. So I love that idea. Jessica: Mm-hmm. Yeah, it was, it was. ⁓ The other thing that I will say is there are two of the street-mosphere people in Epcot that I feel are a big hit with kids. The first, if you're going around from Mexico, Sergio, the juggler in Italy, he is a ⁓ juggler, but he's more than a juggler. It's a complete entertainment. ⁓ He kind of tells jokes and he makes them laugh. And I've, once again, Kids sitting down to watch him is just an amazing time. The next is, and I'm going to not pronounce it right, the drummers in Japan, Metsukura? I don't know if anyone knows how pronounce that correctly. ⁓ There is a female-led drumming team in Japan, and they are just amazing. And they also interact with the crowd. They interact with kids, and particularly young girls. don't get to see women kinda letting loose and being strong and hitting those drums. the girls seem to just love it. I would close out my day in Epcot by going back through the front of the park. And I know everyone thinks I'm going to say Luminous, even I recognize that that might not be the best show for Littles. I am going to tell you though, watching the lights on Spaceship Earth and watching the ground in front of it with all of the lights and all of the music and how it changes the new lights they've added onto the sidewalks of Epcot in front of Spaceship Earth. when they're working, and I know they're not always working, but even the lights displayed, I think they're working now. Rob: Yeah. In front of Spaceship Earth, if you're coming from World Showcase. So it's kind of the back of Spaceship Earth. Yeah. Jessica: I'm sorry, yeah, I'm sorry. Behind spaceship Earth from the front, in front of spaceship Earth from the back. But I would definitely end by watching at least one cycle of the ball change colors. And if there's still the PhotoPass photographers out there, getting that PhotoPass picture with the light lit up ⁓ on the ball, it's just a great end to your day. Yeah. ⁓ Rob: They're usually still out there until, really, think up until park closed lately. I've seen them out there. So yeah. Jessica: Okay, good. I don't necessarily believe Spaceship Earth is the best ride for littles. Once again, it's kind of like living with the land. It may be boring. You know, your kids, So that is kind of my strategy, which is a big circle the park. ⁓ A ⁓ focus on the rides the kids can do, plus the activities in World Showcase. I say what I would change if we, if you had ⁓ early entry or you were coming in from the back, ⁓ I may rope drop Remy. I may just go ahead and rope drop Remy. Instead of going straight to World Nature, I would rope drop Remy and then go to World Nature and then only have to worry about getting that lightning lane for Frozen. ⁓ That's the biggest change I would make. Note that a lot of the other World Showcase stuff that I talked about isn't open all the time. So you might not have Kid Cot yet. You could still do DuckTales, but I would still just hit Remy's and then head on out to World Nature and still do the rest of my plan. Rob: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Jessica: If you had early entry from the front of the park, I wouldn't change my strategy. I would still go to World Nature First and do what I said. I'm not sure I would try to, I would not try with little kids to do the rush to the back and then, and do anything. I would just do what's easiest. So that's kind of my family strategy. and I just want to reiterate, I think that Epcot's a great park for kids. I think it's a great park for families. Rob: So one thing I would love to add about ⁓ Kids and World Showcase. So at this point, I think we've had ⁓ four different friends and family members who came to visit us in the parks with littles. And every single one of them, their littles were the most excited about ⁓ Mitsukoshi in the Japan Pavilion. Like, I think right now, ⁓ Jessica: Mmm, yeah. Rob: Kids are just like they have in Mitsukoshi. They have things that are related to anime. They have things that are related to Nintendo. They have things that are related to kind of more of like a fantasy genres that are like, you know, kind of like dragons and Asian, you know, like mythology. And it seems like nowadays kids are into at least one of those things, if not all of them. And every single time we've gone in with kids, Mitsukoshi has been their favorite thing. So Mitsukoshi is like it's a Japanese department store that has an outpost in Japan Pavilion. If you've been to Japan, you've been to the real Mitsukoshi. It's nothing like the real Mitsukoshi because the real Mitsukoshi is like this very kind of high-end, you know, designer luxury department store. This one is definitely geared towards, you know, Craig: Mm-hmm. Jessica: Mm-hmm. Rob: really I think it's geared towards the littles. It's geared towards kids and you know folks who are looking for kind of Japanese souvenir type things. Craig: Yeah, I was gonna say that's easily my favorite shop on property. And like, I feel bad if I don't get there at least once during a trip. It's like, ⁓ if I don't get a ride in, I'm like, ⁓ that's fine. But if I don't get to see Mitsukoshi, that hurts. Jessica: Mm-hmm. And they have some really cool souvenirs in there, like the pearls, ⁓ getting the pearls. And they have some really, really fun stuff back there in Mitsukoshi. And I tend to buy Christmas presents there most years. It's a good place to find Christmas presents, unique stuff. Rob: Mm-hmm. Yeah. We go there every single year for New Year's and get one of the Daruma dolls, which is you can learn about the Daruma dolls at the Festival of the Holidays. But do we have anything over on Patreon? Any of our Patreon family members shared some tips for exploring Epcot with littles? Jessica: Mmm. Erick: I think a lot of people were just agreeing with what Jessica has been saying. But right now, Rachel just shared something with us. ⁓ She wrote, my daughter loves shopping for something special in each country. ⁓ Maple candy, smelling the tea in the UK, ice cream in France, some special scent in Norway. Have you heard about that? Which I have not. And blind boxes. cute things in Japan, like China. Rob: they always have the scent, the famous scent designer is often ⁓ visiting the Norway Pavilion and you can ⁓ him learn about scents. Is that what she referring to? Jessica: Mm-hmm. Craig: Yeah. Erick: Yeah. yeah, yeah, she said yes. Rob: Well, moving on to my strategy. ⁓ So I'm going to be focused more on the things that are not rides in the park We're going to focus more on things like festivals and characters and shows and the world showcase Of course rides are going to part of your day So we'll we'll kind of nod to that. But for the most part My strategy is really going to be about all the other things there are to do in Epcot. And I got to tell you, of all the parks, Animal Kingdom is a close second. But I think Epcot is the park with the most stuff to do beyond the rides. ⁓ The other important thing to know about Epcot is it is huge. Technically, Animal Kingdom is the largest park, but a large part of that is Kilimanjaro safaris, which is something that you ride around in terms of acreage that you walk. think Epcot is the largest ⁓ park in terms of walking. It's huge and it's divided, as Jessica mentioned, into kind of two distinct sections. There's down at the at the main entrance, you're going to have world discovery, world celebration and world nature. And that's kind of what used to be called future world. back in the day ⁓ is all up there at the front. And then the back of the park is entirely World Showcase. And World Showcase is massive. The whole thing surrounds a lagoon. And you could easily spend an entire day just exploring World Showcase if you were so inclined. I mean, it is that massive. But I'm going to assume that you're not going to do that. You're going to try to experience everything. And I think it's best to try to complete one section as much as you possibly can before moving on to the next. So either start if you're coming into the front of the park, start with that that former future world, world discovery, world nature, world celebration, and then get as much of that done as you can before you move into world celebration, because that's going to eat up a huge part of your day. Even if you're not a rides person, there are some rides at the front that I do think you should consider. ⁓ One of those, as Jessica mentioned, is Spaceship Earth in World Celebration right there. I mean, you can't miss it. It's the giant geodesic dome. When you come in, that's actually a ride. And it's kind of like, to me, it's almost like a natural history museum that's focused on communication. but that you ride through rather than walk through. I mean, it just kind of take you through the history of communication. And it's very cool. There's lots of audio animatronics figures. The settings that they put things in are just really beautiful. So even if you're not a rides person, I think that one is almost more like a show going through it than a ride. And I feel the same way about living with the land, which Jessica also mentioned. probably as Jessica said not for the littles or you know if the idea of learning about agriculture just sounds like the most dull thing ever then maybe that's not for you, but it I Never really thought of myself as someone who was fascinated by agriculture until I rode living with the land and I was like, ⁓ wow, that's very cool I'm very excited to learn what we're doing the latest and greatest in agriculture, which technically I think is actually what was the latest and greatest about 10 years ago, but still you probably don't know about it because who keeps up with the world of agriculture. But yeah, it's very cool attraction and it's more, it's a boat ride, but it's really more kind of an experience that I feel like is akin to a show. ⁓ Also in world nature, as Jessica mentioned, is the Seas Pavilion, which houses what was once the largest saltwater aquarium in the world. ⁓ It is now the second largest aquarium in the US behind the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta. Still pretty big and definitely worth checking out. And then right outside of that continuing with the water theme is Journey of Water, which Jessica mentioned. ⁓ I think especially if you have littles, this is one to do, but also I just think it's kind of cool. It's a really beautiful. ⁓ area of the park to explore and there's these kind of interactive water features. You don't have to get wet if you don't want to. They offer you a path that you can take where you won't get wet at all if you just want to experience it. But if you're a big fan of Moana or you just like seeing cool whiz bang things and beautiful scenes, I think it's worth exploring. In terms of characters up here, you do have a few. You've got Moana. who's right outside of her attraction there. She's right outside of Journey of Water. Nearby is a dedicated meet and greet space at Communicore Hall that you're going to find Mickey and friends in there. And then during the summer, you're going to find Goofy Core in Communicore Hall. And if you've got Littles, if you don't have Littles, Goofy Core probably not going to be a thing for you. But if you've got Littles and you're here in the summer, Goofy Core. all the way is very cool. Not only is it like you get to meet and greet with Goofy, but you're going to play games with Goofy. You're going to dance with Goofy. There's like this huge board game that's like life size that's like set up on the ground and kids play this game. I mean, it's it's very cool and it's a great thing for littles. ⁓ Next door to the to that pavilion, you're going to find the Imagination Pavilion where you can meet Figment. And Jessica mentioned the attraction there, Journey into Imagination. ⁓ For festivals, there are also often some very fun things to see and do up at the front of the park. Like for example, Flower and Garden has the Butterfly Garden, and there are of course the topiaries that are gorgeous, that are throughout the entire park, but there's a lot of them up at the front. So you do want to, if you're there for Flower and Garden, make a point of seeing those. But there's going to be stuff. for all the festivals at the front. Live performances are happening for Festival of the Holidays and Festival of the Arts. And of course, food booths are gonna be there up at the front as well for all the different festivals. Including, one I recommend checking out, even if you're not really doing festivals, have a look at the permanent food booth that's at Communicore Hall because it's often serving up favorite items from previous festivals. So it's a little bit more of a safe bet if you just kind of want to get something really tasty and a little light bite and feel like you experienced some of the festival, that can oftentimes be a good spot to hit. So I would say do as much of that up at the front of the park as you can before you move into World Showcase. If you've got to come back to do something like maybe you have a lightning lane for Guardians or for Test Track or something that's going to be later in the day, it's not the end of the world. I do it all the time, but I can tell you from experience, especially if you've got groups that involve littles, that trek back to the front of the park and then trekking back into World Showcase takes a lot out of people. So just do as much as you can. And keep in mind that when you make the trek back to the front, you might not make it back into World Showcase if you've got little ones who getting tired. Erick: to that, mean, the Wade family, they mentioned, ⁓ first time we went to Epcot with my ⁓ ⁓ year old, we made the mistake of walking from International Gateway to Soaring and then back to Remy. ⁓ mistake. He was toast. This strategy makes so much sense to not exhaust ⁓ ⁓ Rob: Yeah, it really is. mean, I can tell you I've done it. We did it in an early entry video. I went from the International Gateway all the way up to do ⁓ the rides at the front of the park. And then I came all the way back to do Remy. I was exhausted and it was early. I mean, it was was early entry, y'all. And I was beat from just doing that. So it's it's a lot of walking. ⁓ But once you get into The World Showcase, man, if your if your goal is to experience Disney World beyond the rides, this is this is Mecca. This is just the best place to do that. Architecture, food, drinks, shows, characters, shopping. And in some cases, really great rides as well. Each country is so worth exploring. And this is the key. A lot of people will just sort of stay on that loop around the lagoon. And they look at the pretty country and maybe they go inside something that's right there kind of facing the lagoon, but they don't venture inside. it's once you get beyond that peripheral view for a lot of these countries where the magic really starts to happen, ⁓ explore all the little nooks and crannies of these ⁓ World pavilions because especially like Morocco is a perfect example. ⁓ Man, would have no idea what all is going on. beyond that surface facade. If you don't explore back into Morocco, there's some tile work back there. I know you're like, Rob, really? I'm going to go to Disney World and look at tile work. it's gorgeous. And it's just breathtaking. When you walk into certain spaces, the tiles were actually, the tile work was done by artisans who worked on the King's Palace in Morocco. So I mean, it's real amazing craftsmanship that's just beautiful. ⁓ France is another example. You wouldn't even know Remy was there if you just sort of stayed on the loop because Remy is sort of tucked behind in a new expansion of the France Pavilion that's absolutely worth exploring. So make sure you take some time to go into these different pavilions and just know it's going to take more time than you think. So plan a good chunk of your day to be in World Showcase if at all possible. ⁓ Several of the countries have some shows that are like Circle Vision or wide format shows. I will say these are a little bit dated for the most part. Canada updated theirs recently, but the rest of them, it's kind of stuff from the 80s and 90s. ⁓ I love them. I think they have a charm, especially if you're a long time park goer, then of course they have that. a nostalgia appeal for you. But if you've never experienced them before and you're on a tight schedule, the circle visions are the things you could probably skip those shows. I would say you could skip if you've got littles. The show that you don't want to skip is the one that Jessica mentioned back at the front, which is Turtle Talk with Crush. ⁓ Since we didn't go into it much there, I'll just tell you that one. It's an adorable show. There's a there's Crush is an animated Crush, but the voice is live. If you've ever done Monsters, Inc. laugh lore, it's the same kind of technology, but your kids are going to be interacting directly with Crush and asking him questions. it's like, you know, one of those shows where the kids say the darndest things and it's really funny, the answers that come from Crush, that's a really cool one. These shows that are back in World Showcase, not particularly kid friendly. ⁓ And I can't really think of any off top of my head that I would say if you've got littles, they're probably going to love Jessica. Do you have a? Jessica: Beauty and the Beast sing along. So there is a Beauty and the Beast sing along. It's not, if your kid is a huge Beauty and the Beast fan, you can go and sing along to sections of the Beauty and the Beast songs. You don't get to sing one full of any song and it's not the good songs, but it is Beauty and the Beast songs. ⁓ Rob: Yeah... Erick: . Rob: Mm-hmm. If you give your kid is really into Beauty and the Beast though they might be deeply disturbed by how they've changed the story of Beauty and the Beast but in this version of Beauty and the Beast ⁓ Lafou is the hero. Yeah, it's I'm Jessica: is the hero, yeah. It's not a bad, I mean, it's interesting show. The kids that are in it sometimes really like it, particularly if they like to yell and scream and sing, and I think that's good. It's not a bad ⁓ show. That's the only one, though, that I would say littles might enjoy. Rob: Yeah. So, ⁓ every country or I shouldn't say every, almost every country will have characters available. and you know, in China, can meet Mulan in Morocco. You can meet, ⁓ Jasmine in France. You can meet like half the princesses. I've like, they're all there in Germany. You can meet Snow White. ⁓ there's a lot. of characters. My favorite in the UK, this is one again you wouldn't see if you didn't explore deeper into the pavilion, Winnie the Pooh. You can meet Winnie the Pooh in Christopher Robin's bedroom and it is adorable. It's an adorable meet and greet. ⁓ So if you're into characters, definitely explore Into the World Showcase. You're going to find lots of characters, but here's the thing that's important to know. Characters wrap up really early in World Showcase. So if you're doing what I said before, where you're starting at the front and then you're moving into World Showcase, open up the app, take a look at the characters that are in there. And if there's some that are must-dos, you're to want to look at what hours those characters are out because a lot of them finish really early. So you might have to kind of go into World Showcase for a little bit to meet those characters if that's important to you. ⁓ Another little thing I do want to mention, there are these things called friendship boats. They used to have, there used to be four docks that the boats would, the boats would go back and forth between and they kind of take you around World Showcase so you don't have to walk all the way from the front to the back. Currently there's only two docks open. I think it's back to being Morocco and Canada. So you can go between Morocco and Canada. The reason I want to bring this up, A lot of people will look at that and think that it's going to save them time to ride the boat. It will not save you time. It will save you steps. But here's the thing. The steps that you're saving are going to cause you to miss the UK and France. So I'm not saying don't ride the friendship boat. It's a lovely little ride. If you want to ride it just for the experience of riding it, great. but don't think that it's gonna save you time in your day. It's just gonna save you steps. ⁓ The other thing I wanna mention is food because of all the parks, while my favorite food technically is in Animal Kingdom, they have amazing food over there, in terms of the breadth of options, the scope of what is on offer, nothing comes close to Epcot. I mean, Jessica: Mm-hmm. Rob: Every country in the World Showcase is going to have some culinary offering that is unique to that country and or culture. ⁓ There are going to be food booths there during all the different festivals all around World Showcase. So if you're excited about food and drinks, this is going to be heaven. You're going to love the World Showcase. And you might want to plan to come back on multiple days if you have park hoppers. just to eat or to have some snacks ⁓ in the afternoon. I do that a lot when I'm at Hollywood Studios. I'll just take the Skyliner over and enjoy a little bit of the world showcase because it comes in right there at the back. It drops you in France and you can just kind of enjoy some festival food and then head back over to studios. the last thing I want to talk about is the nighttime spectacular Luminous. This is I would say, as Jessica kind of alluded to, this is more of an adult fireworks show. ⁓ As much as a fireworks show can be geared towards adults versus kids, ⁓ there's some pretty deep themes. mean, this show goes into like, you know, love and loss and grief. I mean, it's a full emotional experience. But of course, there's also... spectacular fireworks and some beautiful imagery. I think if you've never seen it before, you got to do Luminous. It's a must when you're at Epcot. And some of my favorite spots are the waterfront seating near the Rosen Crown. You've got to get there pretty early. But a lot of people think that those seats are for the Rosen Crown. They're not. They're just seats. They're just open seating that anyone can go and relax over there. Now there are some that are directly behind the Rose and Crown. Those are more for the Rose and Crown. But basically, if you're looking at the Rose and Crown and the lagoon is behind it, go to your left and that whole area of open seating is just first come first serve. And that's the only place I know of where you can sit down and have a table and just relax and enjoy the show with a perfect view. I mean, it's just nothing obstructing your view. It's a great spot, but get there early. And the other one that I love is ⁓ there's a above Mitsukoshi, the shop that we were talking about. There's like a balcony. It's kind of like a, it's like a, a huge deck basically on the second level. And lots of folks will just go up to that second deck and line up along the edge closest to the lagoon. And it's a really spectacular view of the show from there as well. But really, anywhere you get along the water where you don't have a lot of trees that are blocking the sky is going to be a good view of the show. So I wouldn't sweat it too much if you're not able to get one of those spots. And then the last thing I want to mention is if you're coming in from the back. ⁓ If you're coming in from the back, there's a good chance you have access to early entry. because most people coming in from the back are there because they're staying in an Epcot area resort or a Skyliner area resort. And the good thing about that is Remy is right there. You're gonna basically have a zero weight on Remy if you come in during early entry and that's the hottest game in town. You could also walk around to Norway. It's a bit of a hike. and get a pretty short wait on Frozen as well. But Remy is what most folks do. But here's the catch. Most of the World Showcase is not gonna be open until later in the day. Festival booths aren't gonna open probably till like 11, 1130. Some of the shops and restaurants in World Showcase won't open until later. if you're coming in from the back, I would say the things that you can do Number one, Remy, which we mentioned. Number two, if you're a big fan of Impressions de France, which is the kind of vintage French film, I love it. It's one of my favorite things in Epcot, but it's dated. It's got its own charm. ⁓ But if you wanted to do that, you can only do that first thing in the morning or in the evening after dark. So that could be something you could do in the morning. Jessica: You Rob: ⁓ Also, a lot of those characters will start meeting pretty early. So if characters are a big thing for you, this could be a good time to get that done while those characters are still out and about. ⁓ So that's my day without too much of a focus on rides. All right. ⁓ what are we hearing from our friends on Patreon? Erick: So, well, we're talking about the characters. Rachel was asking, are there surprise characters at Epcot? I one time saw the Evil Queen at the international entrance. Also, like that's related to the one from Jackie. Any characters you can see at Epcot, but not at another park? Rob: Yes and yes. And I'm really glad you mentioned that because so it Epcot a lot of times, especially over there at the American Adventure Pavilion, ⁓ there's this little alleyway that that is directly connected to the backstage area. And you will find the most random characters come out characters you will not see in any other park. I mean, I've seen King Louie from the jungle book there pretty frequently. I've seen I feel like I've seen Baloo there as well. ⁓ I've seen. Yeah. Yeah. Erick: We have seen the country pairs, Jack and Sally, and the pair also like Rafiki, just like the regular ones you sometimes can find like Donald, Donald Daisy. yeah. Jessica: It's our Geppetto. Rob: Mm-hmm. Yeah. So I would say yes, there are definitely, and those will not appear necessarily in the app. Those are just kind of bonus that you're just gonna see when you're back there. if you're a big character person, I would say around lunchtime, middle of the day, early afternoon is when you're most likely to see those characters pop up back there in the American Adventure Pavilion. And also sometimes you will see characters meeting right at the entrance of International Gateway like she was mentioning. Usually that's Daisy is there. I find most times when I'm coming through and I think Daisy is in the app. You can see when she's there, but it is possible you'll see other surprise characters there as well. Craig: Yeah, I've seen Mary Poppins and some penguins there a lot too Erick: And well, from unique characters that you can admit ⁓ in different parks, mean, ⁓ see them in Magic Kingdom, ⁓ but you don't interact with them. Here you can meet and Elsa, which yeah, I don't you can find them anywhere else. Rob: Yeah. And they're in Norway. have a dedicated meet and greet in Norway. ⁓ And you will see that on the app. And there's often a posted wait time as well on the app. Erick: Ab- Rob: All right, well, moving on to our third strategy, this one all about the rides. If you're a thrill seeker, then this is going to be the strategy for you. Craig, why don't you take it away and share with us how we can have the best rides focused day. ⁓ Craig: Yes, so just a few ground rules, which I think we've already established. We're going to be staying off site so we don't have access to early entry. We will be using Lightning Lane, multi pass and single pass, which you will be able to book three days in advance of your first day of your ticket, of your multi-day ticket. So keep that in mind so you can get more than three days if you book ahead, if you go to Epcot later, if that works for you. ⁓ My strategy is also going to work for either entrance. ⁓ I had the easy job this week because Epcot really only has four rides that I would consider thrill rides. That's Guardians, Test Track, Soarin', and Mission Space. So I'm going to go ahead and add Frozen and Remy to my plan just to make it challenging. Otherwise you could easily get all three of those thrill rides with multi-pass that are on multi-pass by just using standby. I would still suggest using single pass for Guardians of the Galaxy unless you don't mind waiting. you know, 90 to 120 minutes in the standby line, because that's pretty much standard about where it gets. Sometimes it'll get lower to like an hour, but still it's a long wait pretty much all day. So, I mean, one of my favorite parts about Epcot is there is a mix of thrill rides. There's mild rides, things that don't require waiting in lines, like, you know, the world showcase pavilions that we talked about and the shows. So if you are planning on spending the whole day, it's very easy to sprout your lightning lanes and fill in the time exploring all that my favorite park has to offer. ⁓ But for this discussion, I'm just going to try to get you in and out as quickly as possible so you can just park up to the studios and get more thrill rides. So the six attractions, ⁓ and these are in order of the Earscout's playing deck that we just talked about. So we have Guardians of the Galaxy, which is on single pass. So that one's an easy one to get. ⁓ Then we have our Royal Flush. We have the Ace through the 10. We have Test Track, which is a Tier 1 Lightning Lane multi-pass. So you can only reserve that once. You can only reserve one of those, mean, pre-book one of those Tier 1s, and then you can get two Tier 2s to go with that. So we have our Ace, Test Track. Our King is Frozen Ever After, especially now that we have the new animatronics. Our Queen is Remy, and that's also a Tier 1. Our next ⁓ lightning lanes are tier two and that's our Jack which is Sorin ⁓ which could become a little more difficult when Sorin over America debuts. And then our 10 is mission space. So what I suggest when you're pre-booking your lightning lanes is getting your guardians single pass. Make sure you get that. Then we go to your multi pass. ⁓ My tier one pick is going to be frozen. ⁓ And that is our king. My tier two is going to be a burner attraction, which I don't think we've really talked about on this podcast. That's something you can get. You try to get an early entry time for that. As close to nine o'clock, as close to park opening as possible. We the Pixar shorts. ⁓ We have the C's and ⁓ the Figmen ride. Although sometimes you can get something really early in the day. So when you get that Burner attraction, what you want do is check into that, tap into that as soon as you possibly can, which will unlock the other tier ones, which in our case are Test Track and Remy. ⁓ And then my other one is going to be Soren. You want to make sure you get that one ahead of time. Now you may be wondering if I forgot about Test Track. which is our ace. ⁓ But this is one of the attractions where I highly suggest using the single rider line. And if you are a thrill junkie, I don't think you have that problem with not being able to ride with your entire ⁓ group with that. ⁓ Same thing for Remy. They have a single rider line and they're both very good options to use because the lines are generally not that long. Plus, if you do get the multi-pass, ⁓ can ride as a group once if you do manage to snag a lightning lane for those. and then you can do the single rider line as much as you want. So my plan is you're gonna ride for like the regular rope drop and you're gonna tap into your burn attraction as soon as they'll let you. Then you're gonna try to get a lightning lane for either Remy or test track, because that's gonna unlock your tier ones. ⁓ If neither is available, go ahead and score mission space, try to modify that to one of the tier two rides or the tier one rides, I'm sorry. ⁓ So at this point you have lightning lanes for four of the six attractions. You have Guardians, you have Frozen, and Soren locked in. So that leaves Test Track and Remi, which can easily done doing the single rider queue if you so choose, if you're not able to get a lightning lane. And then Mission Space, which rarely gets a long lane anyway. And usually pretty easy to get a lightning lane. Sometimes they do sell out, I've noticed. ⁓ But again, the light, the standby lane is usually not that bad. So again, if you can't get an acceptable Lightning Lane return time, you can always rely on the single rider queue. ⁓ Now I would avoid trying to get on that single rider attractions ⁓ right at park opening because lines can be a lot longer like right at nine o'clock when it opens to the general public. But they do tend to calm down within an hour or so. ⁓ But even things like test track, I know can still say hi, Remy, Frozen especially now, and Guardians. ⁓ There's really not a great time. It's not like you can pick like point out a time, but that nine o'clock time does seem to be a lot higher than ⁓ it will be if you just wait another hour or so. ⁓ So again, at this point, would keep an eye on test track to make sure you ⁓ check the wait time, see if they're going up or going down, see if it's open. That's another big thing about this strategy, rides go down. So you got to be aware of that. ⁓ We haven't even talked about experience redemptions. When if you have a lightning lane for a certain attraction, it goes down during that time period that you're supposed to be able to ride. You get an experience redemption pass, which is good for a lot of different rides and it's good for any time. You just have to check the app. see which rides are available that you can switch to. And you can just go on that whenever, including the ride that it went down originally. I'll ask. Rob: And I think if you get that for something like test track, the important thing is don't use it for anything other than test track. If you get it for the ace in the deck or the king in the deck, yeah, I mean, those experience redemptions are like gold if you get it for one of those key rides. Craig: ⁓ right. Absolutely. Mm-hmm. Yeah, so again, we don't have a whole lot of rides to get in here. I do want to add that if you do have early entry, ⁓ my suggestion is to go straight to Guardians, get on there with a fairly low weight within like a half an hour, and still use single pass to ride again because I just can't get enough of that ride. So yeah, that's it. That was a pretty easy one to get rides in. then even the smaller rides like Figment and the Cs, Lightning Lanes are less easy to just snap right up at the same time. Rob: Yeah. Jessica: I've got a question that I actually don't know the answer to so I'm sure there's other people that don't know the answer to. Does mission space count as one lightning lane or is it one per color? Is there, it's one. So if you ride the green you can't come back in lightning lane the orange. Okay, I've always wanted to know that. I mean not that I would ever ride but. Rob: It's one. Craig: Mm-hmm. Rob: Correct. And it's interesting because you don't actually book a color. what Jessica's referring to, mission space has the orange mission, which is the more intense mission, and it's thrilling. And they have the green mission, which is the less intense version. ⁓ But I still find the green mission to be more thrilling than you might think it would be. ⁓ But the orange mission is definitely way more so. Erick: Mm-hmm. Rob: But when you book it, you're just booking mission space. You're not booking one mission or the other. And then when you go to use the Lightning Lane, you can tap into whichever one you want. Jessica: Okay, I was always wondering that. Rob: ⁓ Questions or comments coming in from Patreon Erick: Well, people are asking if green is worth trying. I'm talking about like, I forgot the name. Thank you, Mission Space. Yeah. Craig: without the spinning. Rob: Mission space. ⁓ I think so. I mean, I was surprised. I did green once just to experience it. I always do orange. That's just my preference. But I did it because I was like, well, I should experience what green is like. And I expected it to be a cakewalk. I thought it was going to be just, you know, like watching a movie with a little bit of movement. No, you definitely still have. I mean, it doesn't spin. But you have the feeling of like, you know, dipping backwards and dipping forwards. I mean, it's still ⁓ if you've got a if you've got a ⁓ stomach that doesn't do what you're prone to motion sickness, I should say, even the green mission can be rough, I think. Yeah. Craig: Yeah, here's my general beef with that ride is I guess it's been a while, but they re-recorded the whole like the film and they beefed it up, you know, just the general special effects, but they re-recorded all the live actors and it's the exact same script it was. Like they had an opportunity to like truly update and change the ride and all they did was it was just literally cosmetic. I'm sure it cost a lot of money to redo all that. But that just, I'm still angry at them for not taking advantage of that time down and actually doing something to change the ride, except get rid of Gary Sinise. Rob: we on to our question of the week, do we have other questions from Patreon? Erick: Yes, one of them, well, it came from Ray and Lauren. Eric, can you handle mission space? Yes, and I love it. It's one of my favorite attractions actually. ⁓ Yeah. Okay, from early, ⁓ this comes from, I'm sorry if I mispronounced the last name, but from Dennis and Amy Dougherty. ⁓ You got it, thank you. ⁓ I've heard. Jessica: So weird. Rob: Hahaha. Dardy. Erick: The American Adventure is really good since we have become Anapath members, ⁓ not even a year yet. We've probably been to Epcot like 10 times and never been to that show. I feel like everything we walk by and go and we go in, it's either just started or they close for the day. How good is it? And do you think it's a must see? Rob: I'm so glad that you asked that because that is one that I kind of glossed right over when I was talking about all the things to do beyond the rides. I really love that show, but I think for me at least it's it's kind of I wouldn't say one and done, but it's not one that I want to experience again and again and again. There's some very beautiful imagery. There's some very cool animatronics and just the staging of it is very creative and interesting. And of course, it's telling the story of America and in both the good and the bad. I think ⁓ it's a great thing to see at least once. You got to see it at least once. I don't think it's going to become something that you're probably going to want to do every single time. Maybe it will be, but for me, I... I think that for me the music in that one is a little bit weird in places. Some of the music feels like not my favorite. ⁓ It's. Jessica: you will definitely see at least two dads napping, definitely. ⁓ 100%, I will bet money on it. If you're in there, at least two dads are asleep. Craig: Yeah. Rob: Yeah. Craig: Yeah, it's been a long time since I've seen it, I think it's great as far as just the way it's put together, the stagecraft as a theatre person. It's stunning how they make it work. Rob: Yes. And, ⁓ you know, having lived here five years, I've probably seen it, probably like four or five times. I probably do it like once a year. All right, with that let's move on to our question of the week which also happens to be about Epcot. Jessica what is our question this Jessica: So this is from ⁓ Jenny Dub on YouTube and she says, we're visiting Epcot during a holiday weekend and debating whether to get Lightning Lane multi pass because it seems like the tier ones disappear quickly. But I know even some of the tier twos will have long waits. Do you still think it's worth it? Even if we have seven people in our family, which makes it very expensive. And if so, what would your strategy be? We don't have early entry and I'm trying to figure out if you can rope drop and use a burner lightning lane first thing. I think it should come as no surprise that this crew, we would say, yes, it's worth it. ⁓ think ⁓ lightning, and I'm speaking for y'all, but saw the nods. ⁓ The lightning lane, particularly at Epcot, particularly when it's busy, there's just so much to do at Epcot. You want to... You want to minimize your time in lines if at all possible. And even if you only got the three, that's the deal. Even if you really only got the first three, you've maybe saved yourself two and a half hours of part-time just by getting only those three. And that's worth it in Epcot. That two and a half hours you've saved. Rob: Yeah, I would say what Craig laid out in his strategy is basically kind of in many ways the answer to that question. Well, the one thing I would add with a group that large, if everyone wants to ride Guardians, that's when you're starting to talk about crazy money for one ride because it would be a lot. mean, you're probably you get seven people. You're probably looking at 150 bucks for that one ride. Jessica: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Rob: And that, I think, multi-pass, it's easier to make the argument for because you're going to do so many rides as a group. ⁓ So what I would say is I would do, as Jessica said, I would do the burner attraction as quickly as possible so that you can start booking whatever it is that you want to book. But I would then make a beeline, since you're up there at the front of the park, to Guardians. That's a really long wait, but... it's gonna give you a great opportunity to play the slots and kind of get all three of your lightning lanes as good as they can be. Because the earlier you do that in your day, the easier it's gonna be to get those harder to book rides. If you wait until later in the afternoon to try to get those rides, especially for seven people, ⁓ my gosh, is that gonna be a nightmare. But if you can get them early, Craig: Mm-hmm. Rob: and Guardians is the perfect opportunity to do it. It's a good long wait. You can still enjoy that cue, because it moves relatively slowly. You can kind of take in the room that you're in and then focus on getting your next lightning lane. Another thing I would say, if you've got a group of seven, teach at least two or three of your group how to play the slots, how to use... Jessica: Mm-hmm. Rob: ⁓ When I say play the slots, if you don't know that term, watch some of our Lightning Lane videos, we explain it there. But how to use the app, because you could have the perfect scenarios. You've got three people, each one is focusing on one of the different Lightning Lanes, because you've got three Lightning Lane slots. you can really, I mean, if you've got three people working on it during that guardians queue, you can get those optimized, you can get them as good as they could be. And it's gonna be a great start to your day. we're going to finish with a segment that we like to call Happy Thoughts, because we like to end on a positive each week. ⁓ Jessica, why don't you start us off this week? What is your happy thought? Jessica: So my happy thought, second week in row I'm doing my shirt. So I did see Tom Felton as Draco Malfoy. It's very exciting. But my happy thought is I work in the city a lot. I work in the city, sorry, New York City. I work in New York City a lot because of my job. And when I started working there about three years ago, I stopped being a tourist. I would go, I would go to my job, I'd go to my hotel room. I had two or three restaurants and I just would come home. And I really forgot how much fun New York City can be. We did all the touristy things. We did the Rise, New York Rise, which is, I was telling the guys, like Soarin' over New York. It's a Soarin' version of the ride in New York City. We did a Broadway show. We did some of the fun restaurants. We did a museum. And it was just great to kind of be a tourist again in a city. So I guess my... My happy thought is that I had a lot of fun being a tourist in New York City, but my mission to everybody is whatever town you live in that you've lived in forever, remind yourself that be a tourist in your own town. Take some time to like look around. I realized I live less than a mile from the ocean and we never go to the beach. And it's kind of an interesting, it's an interesting dichotomy there. So take some time and be a tourist in your backyard. And it was a great weekend for John and I. did a of. Craig: I love that idea. Rob: Awesome. Well, Craig, what is your happy this week? Craig: Okay, so my happy thought is the new paint job on Cinderella Castle. ⁓ Just seeing the picture so far is just making me so happy because that's what my castle looks like. That's the one I had dreams of seeing when I was a little kid. I can't wait to see it in person in April when I come back. ⁓ Now the thing, the thing about the pink castle is it just didn't look as big and majestic to me. I don't know if the paint job just made it look small. So I'm really looking forward to seeing. Jessica: Mmm. Craig: the new or the original paint and see if it looks bigger in my weird opinion. But again, it's making grandpa very happy to see it coming back. Rob: I hope that you are bowled over by the beauty of Cinderella Castle when you're here. You're here soon, right? You'll be back very soon. Very nice. Well, Eric, what is your happy thought this week? Craig: Yeah, end of April. Erick: So up having a lot of animals at home. We had different birds and different dogs and things like that. I finally got a pet over here. And we got a better fish. I decided to name him Ginny. just because he's blue and I don't know, it's nice to have like a little pet that I can take care of Rob: And Genie is a beautiful betta fish very very pretty fish, so Yes, that's very exciting Well my happy thought this week is that we finally were able to purchase d23 expo tickets this is One of the great stresses honestly for me every year because we we not every year every other year Craig: You Rob: Every other year it's destination D23. The off years is destination D23 and then the main years are D23 Expo. ⁓ The Expo's in Anaheim. It's actually not called the Expo anymore. Now it's called the D23 Ultimate Fan Experience or something. I don't know. But it's the D23 Expo. But it's incredibly challenging to get these tickets. mean, people will set up Jessica: Mm-hmm. Rob: like every device that they have in their house that is capable of connecting to the internet. And they'll have all of them set up and tuned into the website at the moment that they go on sale. And even that is sometimes not enough for people to get tickets to this event. It's such a big deal. And I just happened to be randomly checking my email, like in the week before tickets were going to go on sale and Disney visa sent out an email saying, Would you like to get tickets to the D23 Expo? And I was like, is this real? I'm checking the address to make sure this is not one of those scam emails that's going to take my credit card information. It was real. And it was the easiest moment I ever had buying D23 Expo tickets. So if you are looking to get tickets to one of these big Disney events that are hard to get, it might be worth it. Craig: Right. Rob: having a Disney visa just for that because man did that relieve a lot of stress. I don't have to worry about that this week. I've already got tickets. So that is my happy thought this week. ⁓ I do want to thank all of our Patreon family members for joining us and for supporting what we do here at Ear Scouts. We're about to head to the Patreon exclusive after party. If you'd like to join us at that again, head on over to patreon.com forward slash Ear Scouts. We'd love to see you until then. Don't forget to think happy thoughts, everybody. We'll see you again real soon.